Did you know that your blood vessels are not just pipes, but that they are actually of vital importance in keeping your blood pressure in check and guaranteeing the functionality of other organs? Do you believe that computer simulations will hold an increasingly crucial role in clinical care? Read on!

Job Description
Thanks to the ever-growing computational resources in modern day society, digital twinning is increasingly becoming a powerful technique in several fields, including medicine. A digital twin is a computational analogue of any physical object or phenomenon, which by replicating its key working mechanisms, allows for predicting its behaviour under a wide range of conditions. In the biomedical research field, digital twins are used for a wide range of applications, including, e.g., the in silico validation of novel devices and patient-specific modelling of organs to predict responses to different treatment strategies and personalise patient care, accordingly.

The Horizon Europe VITAL (VIrtual Twins as tools for personalised clinicAL care, https://vital-horizoneurope.eu/) project aims to take digital twinning for personalised medical care to the next level; rather than focusing on individual organs, we will build a multi-scale, multi-organ modelling platform for optimising medical (pharmacological) or surgical (interventional) therapy for complex, multifactorial cardiovascular disorders, namely hypertension, heart failure, and haemodynamically complicated atrial septal defects. VITAL involves ten academic (University of Gent, Belgium; University of Auckland, New Zeeland; Maastricht University and Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands; King’s College London and University College London, United Kingdom; École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Switzerland; University of Pisa, Italy; Jagiellonian University, Poland) and four industrial partners (Austrian Institute of Technology, Austria; IMEC and Westerhof Cardiovascular Research, The Netherlands; ELEM Biotech, Spain). Within this highly international consortium, your research at Maastricht University will focus on modelling the vasculature, which plays a crucial role in connecting and nourishing different organs. The main focus of your project will be modelling the behaviour of vascular smooth muscle cells, which are chiefly responsible for maintaining the structural integrity of blood vessels over time (vascular remodelling) and for regulating vascular function through vaso-constriction/-dilation.

Besides the VITAL partners, your project will be embedded within the Cardiovascular Research Institute Maastricht (CARIM), part of the Faculty of Health, Medicine, and Life Sciences at Maastricht University. Your appointment will be with the Dept. of Biomedical Engineering, where you will work directly with a core team of three PhD students, two postdocs (both directly involved in VITAL), an assistant professor, and a full professor. Our diverse department hosts people (43% female) from countries all over the world, including Bulgaria, Croatia, Egypt, Italy, Lebanon, the Netherlands, and Sudan, and is committed to creating an open, team science environment for everybody to thrive. In your PhD project, you will:

• Develop multi-scale (from a sub to cellular level) computational models of human vascular smooth muscle cell.
• Integrate vascular smooth muscle cell models into a vessel wall model.
• Conduct ex vivo and in vivo human tissue biomechanics studies.
• Develop strategies for model parametrisation with clinically measurable data.
• Collaborate closely with basic scientists, engineers, and medical doctors.

Requirements
This project will bring together engineering, experimental, and clinical expertise. Therefore, to forward this project, collaboration and perseverance will be key. The following are required:

• Master’s degree or equivalent in (Biomedical or Mechanical) Engineering, Computer Science, Mathematics, or a related field.
• Affection with biomechanics and modelling.
• Eagerness to learn and to collaborate with people outside one’s field of expertise.

What we offer
As PhD candidate in Vascular Biomechanics: Digital twinning for personalised cardiovascular care at Faculty of Health, Medicine and Life Sciences, you will be employed by the most international university in the Netherlands, located in the beautiful city of Maastricht. In addition, we offer you:

• Good employment conditions. The position is graded in scale P according to UFO profile PhD, with corresponding salary based on experience ranging from €2770,00 and €3539,00 gross per month (based on a full-time employment of 38 hours per week). In addition to the monthly salary, an 8.0% holiday allowance and an 8.3% year-end bonus apply.
• An employment contract for a period of 12 months with a scope of 1,0 FTE. Upon a positive evaluation, an extension of 3 years will follow.
• At Maastricht University, the well-being of our employees is of utmost importance, we offer flexible working hours and the possibility to work partly from home if the nature of your position allows it. You will receive a monthly commuting and internet allowance for this. If you work full-time, you will be entitled to 29 vacation days and 4 additional public holidays per year, namely carnival Monday, carnival Tuesday, Good Friday, and Liberation Day. If you choose to accumulate compensation hours, an additional 12 days will be added. Furthermore, you can personalize your employment conditions through a collective labor agreement (CAO) choice model.
• As Maastricht University, we offer various other excellent secondary employment conditions. These include a good pension scheme with the ABP and the opportunity for UM employees to participate in company fitness and make use of the extensive sports facilities that we also offer to our students.
• Last but certainly not least, we provide the space and facilities for your personal and professional development. We facilitate this by offering a wide range of training programs and supporting various well-established initiatives such as 'acknowledge and appreciate'.

The terms of employment at Maastricht University are largely set out in the collective labor agreement of Dutch Universities. In addition, local provisions specific to UM apply. For more information, click here.

Maastricht University
Why work at Maastricht University?
At Maastricht University (UM), everything revolves around the future. The future of our students, as we work to equip them with a solid, broad-based foundation for the rest of their lives. And the future of society, as we seek solutions through our research to issues from all around the world. Our six faculties combined provide a comprehensive package of study programmes and research.

In our teaching, we use the Problem-Based Learning (PBL) method. Students work in small groups, looking for solutions to problems themselves. By discussing issues and working together to draw conclusions, formulate answers and present them to their peers, students develop essential skills for their future careers.

With over 22,300 students and more than 5,000 employees from all over the world, UM is home to a vibrant and inspiring international community.

Are you drawn to an international setting focused on education, science and scholarship? Are you keen to contribute however your skills and qualities allow? Our door is open to you! As a young European university, we value your talent and look forward to creating the future together.

Click here for more information about UM.

Faculty of Health, Medicine and Life Sciences
At the Faculty of Health, Medicine and Life Sciences (FHML), everything revolves around healthy living. Our research and education are not solely focused on recovery, but place a strong emphasis on prevention, health preservation, and health promotion. Our aim is to use our knowledge and expertise to genuinely contribute to the well-being of individual people as well as society in total.

In, research, and healthcare, FHML is closely collaborating with the academic hospital in Maastricht, together forming the Maastricht University Medical Center (MUMC+). FHML is strongly connected in education, research, and care with the Maastricht academic hospital, together with which it forms the Maastricht University Medical Centre (MUMC+).

FHML, which is the largest faculty of Maastricht University, is formed by an (inter)national community of employees and students. The faculty offers a wide range of Dutch and English-taught bachelor's and master's programs in innovative educational concepts in which the emphasis is always on building bridges to practice.

The multidisciplinary research of the FHML focuses on a number of carefully chosen topical current themes. In addition to research aimed at gaining new insights, it also concerns research whose results can be directly translated into concrete applications and innovations. The implementation of the various research programs is organized in our six graduate schools and two institutes.

Curious?
Are you interested in this exciting position but still have questions? Feel free to contact Bart Spronck at b.spronck@maastrichtuniversity.nl for more information.

Applying?
Or are you already convinced and ready to become our new PhD candidate in Vascular Biomechanics: Digital twinning for personalised cardiovascular care? Apply now, no later than July 31, 2024, for this position.

The interviews preferably take place in the week starting August 5, 2024.
An orientation day will be part of the application procedure.

The vacancy is open for internal and external candidates. In case of equal qualifications, internal candidates will be prioritized.

Maastricht University is committed to promoting and nurturing a diverse and inclusive community. We believe that diversity in our staff and student population contributes to the quality of research and education at UM, and strive to enable this through inclusive policies and innovative projects led by teams of staff and students. We encourage you to apply for this position.